The present invention relates to homokinetic power transmitting joints for in particular driving the front steering wheels of front wheel drive vehicles of the type comprising a shaft section carrying at each end a tripod element, the two tripod elements being angularly offset at 60.degree., and two forks each defining three pairs of runways having a circular section, each tripod element comprising three arms each carrying, rotatably and slidable mounted thereon, a spherical roller disposed in a pair of runways.
It is known that the driving and steering wheels of front wheel drive vehicles are driven through homokinetic joints disposed in the region of the wheel pivot near to or within the wheel hub. The mechanisms of these joints are usually considered to be a fragile point of front wheel drive vehicles, this being all the more true as their maximum operating angle is greater. Indeed, when the maximum angle of operation increases, the stresses in the components of the mechanism rapidly increase with associated increase in friction and in the tendency to jam and seize, and the component parts, and in particular the tulip or fork element, must be reduced in size and apertured in order to avoid interference between the various elements of the joint, which obviously weakens them.
Now, these joints are parts on which the safety of the vehicle depends, and the seizure or the fracture thereof may result in accidents. Consequently, up to the present time, either the angularity of these joints have been limited to between 40.degree. and 45.degree., or the joints have been considerably overdimensioned. However, the second solution is expensive and, owing to the greater overall size, results in a relative reduction in the steering angle of the wheel, which is contrary to the desired result.
French Pat. No. 1 205 519 discloses a homokinetic joint which is substantially of the aforementioned type. However, this joint is unsuitable as a wheel joint owing to the absence of simple and light means for axially interconnecting the two forks while allowing them to swivel with respect to each other.